Here's 90 minutes of "Shadow Labyrinth". Play something else instead.
11I've forced myself up to 3 hours of "Shadow Labyrinth" at this point, and I don't think it's likely I'll play any more.
An uninspired start has led to more of the same, unfortunately, and if you can't hook even a player as stubborn as me by the three hour mark then you've failed as a developer.
I don't know what the vision for this game was, but it's overpriced for what it is, and utterly underdeveloped in comparison to other, far better games in the genre. I cannot recommend it in the slightest.
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My Steam Review:
Bland world design, floaty combat, inaccurate controls, inconsistent contact damage — but perhaps worse than that, it's just boring. They've taken an interesting enough premise and managed to make an absolutely dull first three hours, most of which was spent exploring a dragged-out forest area with inconvenient shortcuts and enemies that are utterly immune to damage until they are fully spawned in, and even then their attacks sometimes take priority over yours even when you clearly struck first. The bosses have terrible animations, inconsistent AI, and nothing to endear them to anyone who has played the many much-more-interesting MVs released in 2025.
In three hours I've not found any interesting mechanics. You can travel on magnetic spiderball rails where the controls become even worse than normal, or turn into a mech form which handles atrociously and half the time doesn't turn when you want it to because it has glacial animation locks. And the "eat enemies" thing you've seen in the trailer gets you crafting materials rather than cool stuff.
Exploration is disincentivised due to incredibly limited healing which isn't refilled at checkpoints, only save points, and these feel few and far between. It feels like they really want you to go for the critical path unless you've feeling brave, but don't even make that particularly interesting to find or follow.
The map is very practical and theoretically very useful, but the bland world is reflected in the bland map design. Maybe it opens up later and gives you more interesting things to do, but right now the game has basically set a precedent for meh map design, awful exploration, inconsistent combat, and indistinct, cheap visuals that remind me of the mid 90s.
I know people are going to compare this graphically to Ender Lilies or Vigil: The Longest Night, which both use a Spline-style animation system to animate the bits of those characters, but both of those games had far more visual flair, style, and distinctiveness compared to the inconsistent stuff in this. You only have to look at the background graphics, the transparent PNG fog textures, or how none of the assets have any kind of visual consistency to feel like this was a game made by a committee of artists rather than someone with a distinctive vision.
I'll play more, because I'm stubborn and I spent £20 on this, but I am regretting my purchase.
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ABOUT THE GAME
Shadow Labyrinth is a 2D action platformer and a genre-twisting alternate take on the iconic PAC-MAN. As The Swordsman, you wake on a mysterious planet amidst relics of wars past. To survive you will discover secrets, consume your enemies, and grow from prey to apex predator.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1859430/Shadow_Labyrinth/
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